Working Retail: professionalism…

Everyone thinks they’re allowed a peak into your personal life just because you see them 10 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Everyone gossips and interdates and shares confidential information.

Am I guilty of some of this? Sure.

I told everyone I could about how a coworker threatened to assault me because he didn’t like the way I was talking to him. I told them because I was afraid for my safety and the more people I could have be witness to an event the better.

But lately, my managers have been completely unprofessional and rude to me, for no reason other than he stays out too late and comes in completely hungover. A girl on my stocker team is trying to get another girl fired over their boyfriends.

I went into my personnel office to fill out paperwork and my manager and the training coordinator proceeded to talk in front of me about another associate’s attendance record and personnel paperwork. In front of me.

This past week, I asked my manager to call 2 customers about an issue that had been resolved in our network. He told me, in front of customers, that he didn’t have time to call customers, that he was too busy. I admittedly got frustrated with him and snapped at him. I then got chastised by another manager about having said conversation in front of customers.

In short, professionalism doesn’t exist in retail. And what can you really expect from a group of people who are little more than high school graduates and have never left their hometowns and now think that being a manager at a big box retailer is hot shit.

Maybe I’m kidding myself into thinking that one day I can walk into work and get mutual respect and consideration. Or I’ve just jumped off the deep end finally.

Share some of your horrifying experiences where a manager straight up embarrassed you or shared confidential info or even put you in a position where you felt that had to act outside of a professional capacity.